Ronin
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: This is a dark-ish Clint Barton story. The Snap never happened, but his family still wound up dead. And during one of his bloody rampages he ran into her. It was love, and lust and obsession at first...hit. Little did he know that his attraction and reluctance to let her be would save him. Clint/fem Ichigo story.
1. Chapter 1

It was love, and lust, and obsession at first..._hit_ for him. As he lay on the wet pavement for a moment just blinking at the unexpected and rather abrupt ache blooming in his jaw while he tried to sort over what had just happened to him.

Oh sure, he knew that he'd been hit. Good and hard too.

Honestly whoever or whatever had just hit him had rattled his fucking teeth in his skull. And as he absently ran his tongue along them, he could almost swear that at least three of his molars were now loose. And at least one- was missing. Swallowed, maybe?

Icy blue eyes flickered underneath his hood to the figure standing a few feet away from where he lay, just...staring at him with a frown.

She was a pretty little thing, he noted absently as he did a slow persual of her form and features. Yup. _Definitely pretty_. She looked like she had mixed blood to him. Japanese-American maybe. She had strawberry blond hair that hung in her face and around her slender shoulders and spilled down her back in layers that curled this way and that even while soaked.

Her face was delicate, breathtakingly beautiful- almost like the little porcelain dolls that he used to buy for his daughter, Lila, back when she and the rest of his family had still been alive.

She was tall-ish, for a girl. And would likely only reach his chin in height. She was also young. God, she was so, so very _young_. Somewhere between fifteen and sixteen year in age. Straddling the fence between both childhood and womanhood.

Which was probably why she was wearing a school uniform at the moment. Though he knew that it was late out and no schools were currently open so late at night.

Making a humming sound in the back of his throat he quickly got to his feet and took a moment to look her over again through slightly narrowed eyes.

She definitely had mixed blood in her. He didn't know of any actual Japanese people who had such wide, turquoise eyes. Unless of course the color was synthetic.

He put his hand on the hilt of the knife tucked into the sheath attached to his belt and cocked his head curiously when the girl merely let her eyes drift to his hand for a moment before returning her gaze to his face. Or what she could see of it anyways.

She didn't move. Didn't cower. Didn't flinch away from him.

_Curious_. He thought to himself as he drew his knife and in a lightening quick move, slashed at her. It was simply to see how she would react to the action. In all actuality, he expected her to scream and run away from him. Maybe pop him in the mouth again with her little fist.

Part of him was secretly thrilled at the prospect.

What he didn't expect though was for her to catch the blade in her hand and quickly step into his personal space and grab a hold of him and fling him like a mother fucking rag doll into the side of a nearby brick building.

He didn't hit it as hard as he probably should have given how hard she had flung him. But he hit it hard enough to leave him winded a little bit before he fell to the ground with a soft thud. Landing in a mud puddle.

He scrunched his nose up a little bit as he slowly pushed himself up so that he could keep his eyes on the girl while trying to ignore the fact that- damn, it was _hot_ to run into someone that could throw him around like that. All of his blood was suddenly heading south, making his lower body hard and achy with a need that he hadn't felt in a good long time.

What he wouldn't give to be able to pin little miss thing down and wrap those long beautiful legs of hers around his waist and ravish her right here in the middle of the damned street.

She sighed, and made a frustrated sound as they both heard a couple of voices calling out, _'Ichigo.' _The girl visibly twitched- well, it was more like a cringe really. And made an irritated sound in the back of her throat as she cast him a dark look of warning and wrath as someone rounded the corner.

"Ichigo!"

The voice was male. And the person calling out was a tall red headed guy with some face tattoos around his temples. He came running up to the girl, and grabbed her shoulders and spun her around so that he could see her face.

He slipped silently into a dark and shadowy place not too far away to watch, noting that the guy seemed a little more worried about the girl than the bodies strewn about the street.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine Renji." She replied, and oh- she had a lovely voice. Soft. Breathy. It went straight to his groin and made him shudder with longing.

"Like hell you are, kid. You've been gone for over two hours! It doesn't take that long to run to a convenience store for some snacks. Everyone has been worried sick about you. Especially since you just got out of the hospital." The last few words were said softly. Almost so softly that they didn't reach his ears.

But they did. And his eyes locked on...Ichigo's figure as several more voices- both male and female, called out this time. The red head called back in response and in no time flat the entire street was filled with far more people than there should have been this late in the night.

One of the girls, a short, petite and dark haired kid went running straight for Ichigo and wrapped her arms around the taller girl as if she were afraid that she'd disappear or something as she started firing off questions at her.

"Are you okay? Where have you been? Are you in any pain? Can you breathe okay?" Ichigo answered her patiently until all of her questions were answered before someone asked anxiously,

"Umm... Not to be that guy, but- Why are there bodies everywhere?"

Ichigo blushed and stammered out something barely audible as her friends looked around for a moment, taking note of his handy work before then turning to each other and nodding their heads silently before one of the boys took Ichigo by the arm- earning a nearly audible growl of rage from him as he pictured in his head, coming out of the shadows and _ripping_ the fuckers hand off.

"Come on Ichigo, lets get you away from here and out of the rain." Someone said gently as one of them began to lead the girl away from his sight. Something that didn't sit all that well with him, but he'd allow it for now only because he didn't think that she should stay here in the cold while wet.

He didn't want her getting sick from neglecting her health.

He watched as some of her friends disappeared with her. Leaving behind the red haired guy and two other boys. One was a flipping giant. He was so damned tall. And the other had blue-black hair and glasses.

"These guys are yakuza." Giant said, his voice thoughtful.

"They're also dead." Glasses guy said as he knelt down next to one and felt for a pulse in one guy's throat. "And probably have been for a little while. The bodies are already becoming cold and stiff."

"Well they've probably not been dead all that long. The weather is probably messing with things a little bit." Renji said.

"Just what the hell was Ichigo doing here anyways?" Glasses growled out.

"She might have heard someone scream and decided to come and check things out," The Giant said, earning a glare from Glasses before going on to say almost defensively, "What? You know that I'm right."

"Chad's right Uryu. She probably either heard someone scream and decided to come and check things out or she saw something that she shouldn't have-"

"Which means that whoever did this- if they saw or heard her coming..."

"They'll be back to tie up loose ends."

He didn't need to stick around to hear anymore of their semi crack-pot theories. He resheathed his knife and slipped further into the darkness around him and turned in the direction that the other kids had taken her. And figured that if he wanted to know more...then why not learn what he could of the girl?

It would be simple enough to track her since there was no way that she could have gotten that far to begin with. And with a sliver of a rake-ish smile curving his lips, he made quick work of finding a safety ladder up to the nearest rooftop and began his search.

* * *

It was _way_ too damned easy to track a bunch of kids out wandering around in the early morning hours. Like disgustingly easy for someone of his talents and skills.

Honestly he would have figured that Ichigo might have at least tried to warn her friends about him. Maybe even tried telling them about her run in with him. Possibly even bragged- as most children do- that she had popped some big bad and scary killer in the mouth and lived to tell about it.

But it looked like his new sweetheart didn't care all that much for sharing things with her buddies.

Either out of the naive belief that he wouldn't bother looking for her after their little run in, or because she was simply trying to keep her friends out of harms way.

From how protective her friends had acted- he was leaning more towards option two. Which meant that when he saw the kids come out of a two story house with a place called, Kurosaki Clinic, attached to it a little while after he had started his search- he'd found the place that his baby girl called home.

Letting a feral smile curve his lips, he gave the place a quick look over and decided, that it was sort of...homey. Cozy even. Though the clinic attached to it made it look a little bit less like a home and a little more like...an place that invited squatters?

All of the lights in the house were out with the exception of one second story window.

Letting his icy blue eyes flit to that location, he felt his heart leap up into his throat upon spying his girl sitting in the window wearing an overly large white colored sweater that slipped off of one of her slender shoulders and giving him an enticing view of her...scar?

What the hell? He wondered as he narrowed his eyes slightly at the ugly puckered flesh of her left shoulder. The wound that had caused such an unsightly scar had to have torn through her flesh and deep into her muscle and maybe even chipped away at the bone.

Such a severe injury was practically unheard of on someone so young.

Unless they were like him. The thought of his girl being an assassin was almost laughable. _Almost_. And yet it was also an intriguing idea too.

God knew that it would explain how she had managed to be so silent that she had gotten the drop on him. It would also explain her actions when he had slashed at her with his knife. No ordinary person would have been able to catch his blade in their hand and fling him like she had.

Icy eyes alight with pleasure, he waited patiently for her to leave the window and stand up so that he could get a better look at her body. If she was like him, then she likely had more than one scar on her. And he was suddenly very interested in seeing _all_ of them.

Sure enough a few minutes later she finally stood up, her baggy shirt barely falling past her thighs. Giving him a nice glimpse of her panties (they were navy blue! Beautiful, lovely navy blue!) and her long well toned legs. Sure enough, she had other scars.

When she took a moment to stretch her hands up over her head, her shirt had rode up to over the small of her back, showing off the long pink scar there, just over her spine and she had several on her legs. Some looked like stab wounds while others were long and jagged and looked as if they were deep into the muscle of her thighs and calves.

He could see them so clearly that he counted them.

Five on one leg, and nine on the other. One of which would be considered slightly disfiguring. Honestly it was_ horrible_. And yet...yet seeing it made him feel several things. A fierce need to protect her. An almost overwhelming need to hunt down the person/person responsible for that particular wound- and kill them slowly. And the insane urge to fucking _worship_ it.

No- to worship her.

Gods above he had never met someone who had scars like he did before. Not even his former his friend and partner, Natasha who was also an assassin carried such wounds. And she had been one for far longer than he.

Once she moved away from the window, he could see even more of her as she moved around her bedroom until finally she turned off the light and wandered over to her bed to try and get some sleep.

He smiled again in the dark and silently wished her a good night.

Tomorrow would be early enough to begin to integrate himself into her life.


	2. Chapter 2

He didn't sleep that night.

He was far too wound up to even try. But then he was used to going days and days without any sleep. Even more so now that his wife and kids were dead.

Sleep used to bring a kind of solace to him. Now- it brought him nothing but nightmares, pain, and renewed heartache. So instead of sleeping once he was back at his little man-cave, he instead decided to try and do some research on his girl. And man, oh man- he had hit the frigging motherload.

The Kurosaki clinic had actually been what he had started to research at first since he didn't know his sweetheart's last name just yet. It was a wonderful coincidence when a picture of the former owner of the clinic and his three young daughters had popped up.

The picture had been old. At least ten years or so.

But even so, he still recognized the delicate features of his baby girl immediately and hadn't been able to stop himself from clicking on some stuff with the Kurosaki name attached to it.

He saw the online articles about the murder of her mother, Misaki. And even saw the heartbreaking photo of Ichigo that was taken shortly after she had been found by the river. Her little face splattered in crimson, her eyes wide and frightened in her pale (beneath the blood anyways) face.

The fact that his sweet girl had been so close to a killer at such an young, innocent and tender age had made his blood damn near boil with _rage_.

He had spent most of his already late night, reading up on the girl. Only taking a few moments here and there to pause his research when he found out something..._disturbing_. Like the run in's with the yakuza. The beatings. The irritatingly high number hospital visits.

Her sudden and abrupt disappearances off and on from the age of fourteen all the way up till...well, now. There was even a few articles online about _why_ her formerly amber colored eyes had suddenly changed color. Which was something that he'd been asking himself here and there since finding the first few photos of her as a child.

It turned out that his poor baby girl had lost her eyes after getting slashed across the face while trying to help an elderly couple escape a group of thugs. Her eyes had been so injured in the incident that by the time she had reached the hospital, the doctors hadn't been able to salvage them.

She'd had an eye transplant surgery about three weeks later.

Another thing that he had noticed while doing his research, was that it was mentioned twice in separate articles, that she had been in _two_ comas. One had lasted just under a month and the other had lasted almost five months.

The articles hadn't said anything about her injuries. Or what had caused her to slip into the coma's.

But it did mention that she was found lying on the curb outside of a hospital once, in her school uniform without any sort of wallet or ID on her. If not for the fact that many of the doctors and nurses were well acquainted with her dad- she might have been dubbed Jane Doe and left unclaimed until she awoke.

The fact that he learned that her dad and younger sisters had recently died in a car crash- both saddened him and made him feel unimaginable relief. Not that he liked that the father and siblings of his baby girl was dead._ No siree_. After all, who better than he to understand what the loss of one's family did to a person.

All it meant was that when he showed up and cozied up to her- there wouldn't be any parental interference to threaten him or try and keep him away from her.

And the fact that his girl knew violence, pain, suffering and devastation already simply made her more appealing to his instinctive drive to shelter and protect.

Giving his digital clock a quick glance, he took note of the date and time and grinned a little bit in anticipation. It was August the thirteenth, at seven am. The local high schools wouldn't open until about eight, and classes wouldn't start until nine fifteen or so.

Deciding that it was time to clean himself up and get ready for his second encounter with Ichigo. He shut down his lap top and then stood up and went about grabbing some clean clothing and some other things and then went into the bathroom and after setting his clothing aside, started up the shower.

* * *

It took him less than twenty minutes to shower, shave and re dress himself for the upcoming events of the day. After that all he had to do was grab a small hand held gun- that he hid in an ankle holster underneath his pants leg. And a medium sized switchblade knife (just in case) and then grabbed his keys, and his wallet- complete with fake ID.

He seriously hated his alias. Cory Raven, was by far one of the _stupidest_ fake names he'd ever had the displeasure of going by. So when he introduced himself to Ichigo, he wanted her to call him by his current name, Ronin.

Especially since his mercenary name and his current name were technically one and the same. And everyone knew that the foundation of a happy and healthy relationship was truth and trust.

He would admit though, that he may omit certain details about his life until later on, when Ichigo was a little bit more into him. But he wouldn't outright _lie_ about anything unless it had to do with his work and simply couldn't be avoided.

Stepping out of his current home, he quietly closed the door behind him and locked it before heading in the direction of Ichigo's home, hoping to see her before she headed off to school.

* * *

Ichigo wasn't going to go to school today.

She knew it from the moment that she'd woken up at five in the morning, after only managing to sleep for two hours. She'd spent most of her morning after that just...meandering around the house until about seven or so.

After that she had gone to take another shower, put on some clean clothes and then decided to go out and walk around the neighborhood for a little while knowing that she'd return home around the time someone decided to show up to try and coax her out of her home for school.

She was on her way home after visiting the spot where her dad and sisters had died, when she first saw him.

He was a stranger to her neighborhood.

Tall, maybe six foot three. With a lean-ish looking slightly muscular build. Short cropped sandy colored hair, icy blue eyes. He was handsome. Not too old, but definitely not too young either. He was more...mature. And Ichigo would hazard to guess his age being somewhere between twenty four and twenty eight.

He was moving at a relaxed pace, his hands in his jeans pockets, his eyes watchful and though he kept looking elsewhere- his icy eyes also kept flickering to her. As if he were curious or...studying her?

It was a little bit of a weird look if truth were told.

A cross between several different emotions that he tried- rather unsuccessfully, she might add- to mask from her. It was something like a cross between curious, appraising, interested and...a touch of lust? Her mouth went dry, and her heart pounded so hard in her chest that she could feel it in her throat.

Her fingers twitched nervously and she found herself biting her lower lip in an effort to try and calm herself some as his lips curved up in an secretive little smile that had her tripping over her own feet.

Or at least she would have if he hadn't have caught her when she _did_ trip. She made a startled squeaking sound of surprise when she felt herself start to fall.

He moved fast. Perhaps fast enough to keep up with her lightening quick reflexes and speed. She thought absently as his long legs ate up the slight distance remaining between them so that he could catch her around the shoulders and steady her.

"Whoa there." He said in a quiet, raspy tone that sent a shiver racing down her spine as she hid her face for a moment in an effort to try and calm herself enough not to at least look like she was blushing. Unfortunately, she was pretty sure by the soft sound of his quiet chuckle of amusement that he already knew that she was blushing.

Which was just terrible, really.

Ichigo Kurosaki didn't blush dammit! She was a warrior, not a flipping blushing school girl!

"Are you okay?" He asked, getting nothing but a curt nod from her since she didn't seem to trust herself to speak just then. Which was quickly and mortifyingly followed by the soft sound of a hiccup.

She felt his fingers twitch slightly on her shoulders, almost as if he wasn't sure how to react to the sound as her face positively _burned _with embarrassment when she suddenly heard Rukia and Renji's voices call out from somewhere behind her and damn near jumped out of her frigging skin.

She turned her head to look at the two through wide, horrified eyes when she noted that they had Uryu, Chad and Orihime with them and started to groan when the sound was cut off by another hiccup while the stranger slowly, very slowly, she noted with a small frown- released her shoulders and took a small step back away from her as Rukia came running up to her.

"Ichigo! We've been calling you're phone for the past thirty minutes. Why didn't you answer? And just why aren't you dressed for school?" Rukia demanded. Ichigo hiccupped again instead of answering her, earning a sigh from the smaller girl before she shifted her violet gaze to the stranger and quickly pasted on a polite smile. "Hi! My name is Rukia, I'm Ichigo's friend. Thank you so much for...uh..."

"She nearly fell." The stranger said helpfully.

Rukia blinked at him for a second and then looked back at Ichigo who visibly flinched a little bit, which didn't go totally unnoticed by the guy, before the girl went on to say. "I see. Then thank you so much for helping her. Her other friends and I worry about her when we aren't around. Especially since she's still healing." Rukia curtsied to the guy and then reached out and snagged Ichigo's wrist and started to drag her away while chattering a mile a minute as Ichigo cast the stranger several odd looks from over her shoulder.

He smiled at her and gave a small wave and nearly laughed when she flushed a fetching shade of pink and abruptly turned away.


	3. Chapter 3

"So...who was that?" Renji asked curiously as he fell into step on Ichigo's other side. The girl had been acting strangely suspicious ever since last night. Or at least that was what Rukia had claimed once she had returned home anyways.

And after just witnessing..._whatever_ the hell that was, with Ichigo in the arms of a strange man- Renji was inclined to agree with Rukia.

She was acting a bit _funny_.

Ichigo was still a pretty pink color and cut a glare at him out of the corner of her eye, causing him to grin a little bit. Not the least bit intimidated by the warning look. Especially when she was blushing and flustered like she currently was.

"I'm just a tad bit curious about him myself," Uryu said as he adjusted his glasses a little bit with his finger tips. Pushing them up on the bridge of his nose. "I've never seen that guy around the neighborhood before..."

"He stands out." Chad said as he cast Ichigo an oddly calculating look. The girl ignored them until Orihime mentioned that maybe Ichigo had a crush on him or something. Almost causing everyone to laugh at the mere idea of the girl who was typically 'oblivious' to the opposite sex having any kind of crush on anyone.

However when Ichigo didn't outright deny Orihime's words, that sort of gave them all a pause. And that pause sort of then slid right into worry. So much so that the group kind of turned on their friend and started shouting at her.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Rukia practically spat out.

"I thought that you didn't like men!" Renji yelled.

"I thought that she was asexual like a plant..." Orihime commented in a thoughtful manner.

"He's an outsider Ichigo! And outsider!" Uryu hissed.

Chad didn't say anything one way or the other. As far as he was concerned if having a crush on the guy was what made her happy then that was her business. But if the guy made her cry any- then he'd tear him to shreds and bury him in a shallow grave somewhere.

"Please tell us that it isn't true!" Uryu practically whined.

"Of course it isn't," Orihime finally said, getting everyone's attention. "Ichigo is part _plant_. Why would she need to have a crush on a boy if she's going to pollenate to have babies?"

Rukia and Renji blinked at Orihime as Chad groaned and covered his face with his hands. He couldn't watch this mess of a train wreck any longer.

"Uh...O-Orihime, I don't think that's how babies are made." Uryu said nervously, wondering what the hell had put this particular idea into the girl's head.

"Not human babies, no. But Ichigo's babies will be part plant like her." Orihime said with a smile as she reached out to pet Ichigo on the head while the girl just stood there in stupefied silence.

Chad made a strained sound in the back of his throat and kept his face hidden behind his hands as Rukia sighed and slipped an arm around Orihime and steered her away from the others saying, "I'm going to tell you how Ichigo's babies will be made Orihime… When a boy and a girl like each other very much-"

"I'm...just going to go and stop Rukia from traumatizing Hime." Uryu said in a slightly anxious tone before slipping away from the rest of them to follow after the two girls.

Leaving Ichigo alone with Chad and Renji.

"So...you didn't really answer me when I asked about the guy..."

"Shut up, Renji." Ichigo said from between clenched teeth as she started walking again. Renji made a sound of protest, but was quickly quieted by Chad as he started to follow behind Ichigo.

The two walked in silence for a little bit, both were just slightly relieved to find that Renji nor any of the others had followed them when they had walked off when Ichigo suddenly said, "I don't like the guy. I don't even know him."

"Okay."

"I tripped and he was...nice enough to catch me." Chad made a noncommittal humming sound even as he eyed her with a strange look on his face. She visibly bristled for a moment before hissing out in a defensive tone. "What? I _can_ trip, ya know."

"I know." Chad said before then adding, "It's just that you aren't that clumsy."

"I'm clumsy enough." She said.

"Not really." Chad muttered with a slight shrug of his shoulders before then asking, "Did you get any rest last night? You have bags under your eyes."

"I got maybe about two hours..."

"You need to sleep more. Do you want me to skip school today and-"

"No. No. Go ahead and go. Just because I'm skipping for now doesn't mean that you should too."

"Okay." Chad muttered as they reached a intersection located not far from their school.

"You should go now." Ichigo said in a soft tone. He nodded his head but was reluctant to actually go and leave her to her own vices. Especially given how poorly she had been doing of late.

"I'll drop by later and check on you." He said as he reached into his back pocket and fished out his wallet. He might not have much, but he could at least give her some money to buy herself something for breakfast or lunch for the time being. He'd have to go by the grocery store later and pick up some actual food for her that would last her a little while though.

Pulling out some bills, he started to hand them to her but she pushed them back at him. "Keep it Chad. You need to eat too. And I'll be fine. Try not to worry so much." She was trying to be a good friend, and not make him worry. Even he could see that much. But he couldn't help it.

Between her family's deaths and her recent awakening- he worried endlessly. He knew that she wasn't taking care of herself like she should. She hadn't been sleeping right ever since waking up to hear that her father and sisters were gone. She had nightmares that caused panic attacks, difficulty breathing, and heart palpitations.

She didn't eat like she should either, and it was really starting to show in how much weight she had lost recently. Sure she wasn't exactly a skeleton, but she didn't look all that good either.

"Take it Ichigo." He said as he tried to hand the money to her again. She pushed it back at him again and glared at him.

"That's your hard earned money, Chad. Keep it and spend it on something else." Now that sort of pissed him off. And he was pretty sure that that was what she had been aiming for. Which only served to _irk_ him further. So much so that he started to take a threatening step towards her but then caught himself and then sighed in frustration.

"Why do you always have to be so stubborn? Why do you always have to turn down any help that I or the others could give you? For fuck's sake Ichigo...you're our friend. We _want_ to take care of you." He asked softly. His dark eyes studying her.

She made a soft huffing sound before muttering, "I know that. It's just...I've always been the one taking care of you guys. It...feels weird to be on the other side of that. Like I'm helpless or something. It sort of rubs me the wrong way. Ya know?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I know."

"You're not going to leave me alone until I take the money, are you?"

"No."

She made an irritated little growling sound and held her hand out. "Fine. Give it here." Chad smiled a little bit and handed the bills over and watched her curl her fingers around them and then stuff them in her pants pocket before she looked up at him.

She looked a little bit less than pleased. But she also had a look of understanding on her face.

"I'll come by and see you after school."

"Yeah, yeah. You better get straight A's mister."

He laughed softly at her grumpy tone and then walked away from her.

* * *

On a rooftop above the two kid's heads, he watched the exchange with avid interest and got a thoughtful look on his face. The giant was like Ichigo's equivalent of Natasha. That was nice to now. He mused to himself as he watched the giant walk away from his girl.

He'd been worried for several moments that the arguing would escalate into a fight.

In fact the moment that the giant had taken a step towards Ichigo, he had prepared himself to jump down from the roof and beat the ever loving hell out of the kid. However he seemed to have a much tighter reign on his temper than he had originally thought.

Which was good since he very much doubted that Ichigo would look at him, much less give him the time of day if he killed her friend.

And then there were her other friends... They were certainly an odd bunch. Especially that auburn haired girl that kept going on and on about Ichigo pollenating and having babies? She was super weird. Entertaining, sure.

But weird nevertheless.

He kept his eyes on his girl as she awkwardly fumbled around in her pockets for a moment before pulling the money that her friend had given her, out again and then frowned down at it and sighed tiredly before turning and starting to wander off.

He noticed her laying the money down on the top of a trash can as she passed it, and narrowed his eyes slightly at the movement as she wandered off a little bit further down the street. He stared at the wad of cash that she had left behind with another thoughtful look on his face for a moment before deciding to grab the money and set up another impromptu meeting.

If she was going to refuse to use what her friend had given to her to take care of herself, then by god he'd do it for her.


	4. Chapter 4

Ronin would admit, that he'd always been a fiercely protective bastard. Even back when his late wife and kids had still beeen alive. So being able to focus some of that attention on Ichigo, and giving his protective instincts free reign to do as they damned well pleased- was nice for a change.

It had been quite a while since he'd allowed himself to_ feel_ anything remotely positive towards another person. So he was really loving this.

He'd managed to corner the girl again, after tracking her for a mile or so and had more or less brow beat her into having an early lunch with him under the guise of not wanting to eat alone. She'd been reluctant, of course. Dear god it had been _adorable_ just how reluctant she had been to be dragged off to parts unknown by him.

And she had even looked like she was mere seconds away from screaming for help. As if she could have really escaped him anyways if he didn't really want her too.

But the urge to scream had quickly died when he'd all but dragged her into a local eatery and gently pushed her into a seat and then took up residence across form her and waved over a waiter who had taken their drink orders before meandering away again to allow them some times to go over the menu's in front of them.

"D-Do you always drag people to places like this?" She finally asked, she had a puzzled look on her face as he let his blue eyes flicker up from his open menu to look at her as he inwardly gushed to himself.

_God she is just precious_.

"Sometimes," _More often than I would ever admit_. He thought to himself wryly. But that was usually when he was planning to murder someone. After all, killing people was a lot easier when you could overpower them and drag them off to prevent them from being found or helped before you could finish them off. "Though I usually don't drag kids around. Parent's tend to frown upon such things." He said with a friendly smile.

She scowled at him. Eliciting a soft, almost breathy laugh from him at her peeved expression.

"Well, you aren't wrong." She finally muttered as she slowly opened her own menu and started to scan it before then adding in a dark growling tone, "If you try anything funny- and the authorities will be picking up what's left of your body for _years_."

He let a wry smile curve his lips as he muttered, "Duly noted." Having little doubt in his mind after their little run in last night that she could probably back up her threat of bodily harm quite easily.

Letting his gaze drift back to his menu, he studied Ichigo from underneath his lashes while pretending to look over the list of food and other things. She looked...well, _pale_. The dark circles under her eyes were a tell-tale sign that his poor girl hadn't been resting all that well. He could also tell a little bit easier in the light of day, that she had recently lost some weight.

Six, maybe seven pounds. If his rough estimate was correct.

Which wasn't good given how slender she already was.

"Do you know what you want to get?" He asked randomly, hoping that she might at least try to choke something down for common courtesy's sake and almost let himself indulge in a smug little smile when she finally muttered,

"A turkey and cheese sandwich. I think?"

"Alright. I think I'll have the same. Do you want any fries or soup or-"

"No. The sandwich should be fine."

"Okay then," He said as he waved the waiter from earlier over again to take their orders. Once the guy was in place with his note pad and pen in hand, Ronin started to order. He ordered the same sandwich as Ichigo, and a plate of cookies too. Just to see if he could tempt her with something a little bit sweet later. Once their orders were jotted down, the waiter scurried off. Leaving the two of them alone again. "So...you go to school around here?" He asked her in an effort to both gather more information and to politely engage her in conversation.

"Yeah."

"Really? Do you like it?"

"It's okay...I guess. The teachers and staff are really good. I do get a lot of trouble because of my hair color though." She said as she sub consciously reached up to touch a lock of her strawberry blond hair that had been hanging over one of her shoulders.

"Really? Why?"

"Because a lot of people think that it isn't natural. My mom had the same colored hair, but because I look more Japanese than American- my hair must be dyed or something. I get bullied and teased a lot. And some people have even tried to hold me down and dye my hair black. Because it's a 'respectable' color."

"They sound like total assholes." He said as he propped his chin in his hand.

"They are. But that's okay. I usually take care of the issue so that they'll think twice about doing it again."

Something about the way that she said those last few words got his absolute and undivided attention. "Is that so? Kick em in the dick a few times, have you?"

"_Ew_. That's such a girly move." The look of utter disgust coupled with her expression nearly had him doubled over laughing. Nearly, being the operative word. Instead he just snorted and shook his head for a moment before then pointing out.

"You are a _girl_."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to fight like one. It's just wrong to hit a guy there!"

He bit the inside of his cheek and looked away from her because- _OMFG_, she was so cute! If he thought that he could get away with it any, he would totally jump over the table and wrap himself around her like a giant python.

But as it was, he was pretty sure that she would freak out on him and call the cops.

Besides, such things were best left for when she knew him better.

"Oh!" He said suddenly, remembering that he hadn't properly introduced himself to her just yet. "My name is Ronin. I used to live around here when I was a kid with a foster family. And you are?"

"Sorry, my parents taught me to never give my name to strangers." She said with a shark-like smile.

"That's cold. Especially since I'm buying you food." He groused despite his carefully hidden amusement.

"You can call me Mai or something." She said flippantly as she looked away from him. Missing the way that his eyes narrowed at her slightly as he thinned his lips in displeasure upon being given a fake name. It was on the tip of his tongue to call her something really embarrassing until she gave him her real name- when all of a sudden someone- no, some _guy_ walked up to the table and the two of them looked up.

Ronin blinked, wondering what the guy wanted. Whereas Ichigo gasped and nearly jumped out of her seat.

"Well, well, well, it looks like little Ichigo is finally becoming a woman," The scruffy looking platinum blond guy that had walked up to them, said jovially. "I didn't know that you were into older guy's, kid." He said as he let his dark gaze wander from the girl to Ronin before he smiled at him and offered him a hand.

"Hello, my name is Kisuke Urahara. I'm a dear old friend of Ichigo's late father. And you are?"

Never one to back down from even the smallest of challenges, Ronin took the man's hand and introduced himself while he tried to ignore the fact that the man was trying to_ crush_ his hand in his freakishly strong grip. Which Ronin decided to return in kind, and smiled the whole time he was tightening his grip and crushing the blond's hand with his own harsh grip.

"Wow, nice grip there," The blond said easily, totally unfazed by the fact that Ronin had damn near broken his hand. "You can tell a lot about a guy from the way that he shakes hands with someone."

"Right back at you." Ronin said, pleasantly. Earning a feral smile from the guy that by all rights should have sent him scurrying for cover. That smile of his was about as nice as a serial killer's. It definitely gave Ronin the impression of barely contained violence and bloodlust as he turned his attention from him to Ichigo.

"Say kid," Kisuke said as he turned his head to look at the girl and asked. "I have an odd job that I need your help with. You mind swinging by my shop later?"

Ichigo hesitated for several heartbeats, her eyes flickering form Kisuke to...Ronin. Her expression confused and maybe just a little bit worried as she stammered out. "O-Oh. Yeah, sure."

"Great! I'll see you then. Have fun on you're date!" The guy said happily as he started to walk away as Ichigo sighed and muttered.

"I'm not on a date."

Ronin sniggered before saying, "So...your name is Ichigo." And watched with barely contained mirth as she stiffened in her seat. "That's cute. So does that mean that I can call you Strawberry?"

"Say that again and lunch or no- I will _strangle_ you." She growled at him, her face turning a fetching shade of the lovely pink that he was quickly growing so very fond of.

It was on the tip of his tongue to say something perverted, but their meals came and he quickly had to shut that shit down. Once they had their food, Ronin watched her curiously as she slowly tucked into her meal. She maybe ate a little bit less than half of her sandwich before she sighed and quietly pushed her plate away, muttering an apology for not finishing it.

He waved her apology off and told her that it was fine. He didn't always feel comfortable eating with strangers either. Which wasn't exactly a lie. But he was fairly certain that for Ichigo, her lack of appetite had more to do with her exhaustion than anything else.

He quickly finished his own food and then got her a to-go box, and despite her protests otherwise, put what was left of her sandwich and all but two of the cookies that he had ordered inside of it and handed it to her as he laid the money for the food and drinks on the table and motioned for her to follow him out.

She frowned at him but did as he bid anyways. After all, they were still in public. It wasn't as if he could do anything to her with tons of witnesses around.

Once outside, he looked at her for a moment before slowly saying, "You look tired kid."

"I-I do?"

"Yeah. You do. Now that you've at least eaten something, why don't you head home and try and grab a nap or something."

She hesitated for several seconds and chewed on her lower lip as she seemed to mull over his suggestion before finally nodding. "Yeah, I think I'll do that."

"Great," He said with a grin as he turned away and started walking off. "See you around Ichigo."


	5. Chapter 5

Once he was out of sight, he doubled back so that he could follow her home at a discreet distance. Just to be sure that she made it without any issues. Like collapsing, or something. Once he was certain that she was inside of her house, he breathed a little bit easier. The anxiousness and worry that he had felt prior, slowly seemed to melt away into an odd sense of calmness.

Especially once he was one hundred percent sure that she was actually laying down.

Never had seeing another person curl up on a bed, soothed him so damned much.

Honestly it was if someone had waved a magic wand. All the stress, the anxiety- the need to protect and shelter another so badly that he could literally feel himself physically_ ache_ from it- eased up and everything felt...almost normal again. Well, as normal as things could get for him anyways.

He stood where he was for a good ten minutes, monitoring her breathing from the safety of the rooftop across from her home until he was sure that she was seeping before he decided to leave her to her rest.

He had another job to do tonight and he needed to go and prepare for that anyways. Casting one last look of longing towards her bedroom, he sighed and slowly shook his head before he turned and walked away vowing that he'd check on her again later tonight. Maybe once his job was complete.

* * *

Ichigo was still asleep when Chad came over and let himself in with the copy of her house key that she had given to him for when he needed a place to crash, almost a year in a half before her family had died. He'd hit the grocery store before coming over and had several bags of food and other things for her.

Quietly kicking the door closed behind him upon entering, he moved carefully through the house to the kitchen and set the bags down on the counter before then turning and heading for the stairs to go see what Ichigo was up too.

Normally she when someone came into the house, she would wait for them in a dark corner somewhere unnoticeable to see who they were. Just in case they were burglars or something. But so far he hadn't seen or heard or even sensed her anywhere downstairs. Hiding or otherwise.

So he felt a tad bit concerned as he took the stairs up to the second floor of the house and quietly made his way to her bedroom, and slowly pushed the slightly ajar door open a bit more so that he could peek inside.

Ichigo was utterly dead to the world. He noted in bemusement as he took in her spread eagle sprawl across the bed. She must have been sleeping pretty deeply given how she hadn't reacted to his presence at all since he had reached her bedroom door. It was unusual for her not to react whenever someone got to close to her when she was in a vulnerable state.

Which was simply a testament to how tired she must have really been.

Pushing the door open just a bit more, Chad slipped into the bedroom with the intention of grabbing a throw and using it to cover Ichigo since she looked as if she might be cold. She was shivering a little bit and looked slightly uncomfortable to him. And since she was still healing up from the coma and such, she really didn't need to get sick right now.

Moving as stealthily as his large body would allow him to, he moved over to the chair at her desk where she sometimes kept her throw- and damn near killed himself when she suddenly turned over onto her side, grabbed a slipper from the floor and forced some of her energy into it and threw the damned thing like a missile at his head.

He managed to get out of the way in time to prevent himself from being injured by it. But couldn't do anything for the hole that it made in her wall.

"Holy shit-" He muttered in shock as he stared at the hole and then the slipper and then slowly turned his eyes back to Ichigo, whom had somehow managed to remain sound_ asleep_ the entire time that she was turning her slipper into a deadly weapon, and throwing it at him.

Deciding that it may be in the best interest of his life and wellbeing to leave the room, Chad didn't say or do anything about his near death experience. Instead he just turned and quickly left the room to go back downstairs and put the groceries away and wait for his friend to wake up before he accidentally_ died_ in a weird friendly fire incident.

* * *

Ichigo awoke around six pm after having slept for almost nine hours, she was feeling less tired and maybe a little bit more like her usual self. Hearing movement downstairs- heavy footsteps moving quietly back and forth between the kitchen and the living room where she could hear the soft sound of music playing, she blinked her eyes for a second and flared her energy and smiled slightly when she felt Chad flare his own in response to hers.

Slowly getting up, she took a moment to sit on the edge of her bed and rub at her eyes before then standing up and making an automatic beeline for the bathroom to pee and wash her hands before then leaving to go down stairs and see what Chad was up too.

Chad- when she finally reached the bottom of the stairs and looked around, was lounging with his sock clad feet up on one of the arms of the couch. With his back against the wall where he was resting his broad shoulders. He'd moved the couch again so that he wouldn't wind up falling off of it like he had during one of his previous visits when he'd tried to lounge on the too-short piece of furniture while he'd been trying to get comfortable enough to read a little bit.

He looked...comfortable. And maybe a bit _irked_ too as he looked up from his cell and fixed his dark eyes on her.

"Ichigo."

"Hey," She said awkwardly before then asking, "You been waiting long?"

He made a humming sound that could have either been a _yes_ or a _no_. But didn't bother to confirm nor deny which one it was as she asked him if he'd at least eaten something. Because she'd feel weird if he hadn't. Especially since she was thinking of grabbing what was left over from the to-go box from earlier and finishing it off.

He hummed again and shifted slightly so that he could put his feet on the floor and then said, "Kisuke has called and texted a few times."

"Oh."

"You forgot about telling him that we'd be by tonight." It wasn't an accusation. Not with the amusement that she could hear lacing his tone. But she couldn't help cringing all the same.

"Is he pissed?"

"No. He knew that you were tired and needed the rest," Chad said gently before then tacking on, "He is however coming here." Okay, now she really _cringed_. She couldn't help it. The last time she'd let that weirdo in her home, he'd put camera's up all over the place and made her a Soul Reaper 'reality' star without her knowledge.

Needless to say- shit had got crazy after she had found some cameras in the bathroom during a shower, and had almost beat him to death with his own cane while he'd been tending to a customer at his shop.

"He doesn't go anywhere we can't see him." Was her automatic response. Chad didn't argue since he agreed with her wholeheartedly.

He hadn't liked sitting down in his apartment to watch TV before bed, and seeing Ichigo in her very own shower scene via the hidden cameras. After he'd gotten over his initial shock (and started breathing again after choking on his food) from seeing his best friend on TV..._naked_. He'd hit the streets and hunted the man down and caught Ichigo nearly killing him.

And since he'd deserved every little bit of pain and suffering for what he had done to her, Chad had simply turned and walked off vowing to nail the blond at a future time and place so that he'd never see him coming.

To date, he'd nearly killed Urahara at least_ twice_.

Once for trying to convince Ichigo to do a naked calendar. And another time for trying to convince her to do a kissing booth at a local festival.

To be perfectly honest, Urahara hadn't really deserved to nearly die the second time. But since Chad was an old fashioned and hopeless romantic at heart- he saw trying to convince someone as shy and awkward around men- to kiss people for money- as _wrong_. Especially since Ichigo was saving her first kiss for someone that she liked.

"Do you think I have enough time to try and eat something?" Ichigo asked, watching Chad curiously as his body language shifted somewhat to something along the lines of excited.

"I think so. But I can lock the door just in case if you need me to buy you some time."

She mulled his offer over for a few seconds before finally sighing and shaking her head no, which caused Chad to thin his lips a little bit in displeasure. It was pointless to try and keep Kisuke out once he got there since he'd likely have a few others with him. Like Renji, Tessai, Yoruichi or even Rukia.

"You should still try to eat something before they get here. I don't think any of them will mind." Chad said. She gave him a small smile and then turned and shuffled off towards the kitchen to do just that when there was suddenly a knock on the front door causing her to freeze up while Chad groaned and muttered irritably under his breath as he got to his feet and moved to answer the door.

Sure enough, there was Urahara doubled over and panting as if he'd just run several miles to reach them, and behind him was Yoruichi, Renji and...Uryu?

"Chad!" Urahara wheezed, as if he had the lung capacity of someone who'd been smoking for two hundred years or something instead of those of someone who could run circles around Ichigo, who to date had been clocked as second in speed. The first of whom had been Yoruichi since she could outrun some of the fastest people and animals in the known world.

"Kisuke-" Chad muttered as he scanned over the others and nodded to them all in greeting before then turning his attention back to the blond."We expected you sooner," He said with an innocent look before then tacking on. "It must suck to be getting so old and decrepit." As he backed up to let them all into the house.

Ignoring the fact that his comment at the man's age had set his teeth on edge.

Once everyone was in the house, Chad closed the door quietly and locked it to keep intruders out and then turned just in time to catch both Yoruichi and Kisuke greeting Ichigo with a hug.

"Hey guys." Ichigo said as the two finally stepped away after a moment or so.

"I was happy to hear that you'd finally gotten some rest, Ichigo." Kisuke said slowly before asking, "Have you managed to eat anything yet?"

"Uh...no. I-I was just about to do that when you guys got here." Ichigo said awkwardly.

"Then by all means kid, don't let us stop you. Go ahead and grab something. We'll wait for you to finish up grabbing something before we get down to business."

Ichigo hesitated for a second or so, obviously uncomfortable with the fact that she was being encouraged to eat in front of guests. But Kisuke gave her a pointed look and she reluctantly gave in before walking into the kitchen to do just that.

Upon her return from the kitchen, with food in hand, she found everyone seated around the dining room table silently waiting for her to settle into her own seat before Kisuke finally said, "Alright, this is the long and short of things. There's a new player in town that's been leaving bodies wherever he goes. For the most part, the people that he's killed are those involved in organized crime."

"Yakuza, dirty cops and judges. People who kidnap others and sell them into prostitution and so on. Normally we wouldn't bother to get involved with something that's obviously a human affair. However because of how many people have been killed recently- Soul Society is in a little bit of a tizzy. And they want us to intervene and stop whoever is responsible. Is everyone still following me so far?"

Renji and Uryu both shifted in their seats a little bit. Chad tensed up, already not liking where this conversation was going.

"We've been given the order to go undercover as a minor crime organization- our forte is human trafficking. I'm not going to bother to pretty things up, because this will likely get messy for some of you more than others." Kisuke looked at Ichigo for a moment before then looking away. "I'm going to go with you on this job, as well as Yoruichi. Now these will be your assignments..."


	6. Chapter 6

Ichigo stood outside of the location that Kisuke had given as a possible next target for the guy that they had been assigned to stop, looking as if she were seconds away from throwing up all over her slutty red dress.

Things had gone _very_ badly for him earlier when he had given out everyone's assignments. Especially when he had mentioned that she would be going undercover as a professional call girl. And then mentioned that she might actually have to live up to her backstory and fuck one or two people.

_Willingly._

Naturally, he'd gotten punched in the face by Renji and shouted at by her extremely displeased friends. Hell, even Yoruichi had been disturbed by her given assignment and had told him that she couldn't be expected to go on a job like this so soon after getting out of the hospital.

Kisuke had told them that he didn't like it either. And had even argued with the higher up's about the very same thing. However for some reason Soul Society wanted her to be present. And for some ungodly reason it had to be in_ this_ capacity. Which was why Kisuke had explained why he and Yoruichi would be going as well.

He would be playing the part of Ichigo's customer. And Yoruichi would also be going undercover as a professional call girl- as well to help him keep an eye on her. Renji, Uryu and Chad would be the muscle to act as Kisuke's bodyguards. And also help him and Yoruichi to keep an close eye on her.

Once everything had settled down a little bit, Kisuke had managed to go over a few contingency plans- also just in case Ichigo found herself in a very bad situation.

One of which was where he would give her a tablet with similar effects to a date rape drug, but without the loss of her senses and ability to think and act quickly if she needed to. The other contingency plans were along the lines of- knocking a person out and tying them up and tossing them in a nearby closet. Or simply breaking someone's neck and walking away.

If at any time Ichigo found herself alone and the center of undesired attention, she was to flare her energy a bit as a distress beacon and one of the boys or Yoruichi would come and find her _immediately_.

Once he was finished speaking, Yoruichi grabbed her and took her upstairs to help her get ready for their evening.

Ichigo would be lying if she said that she wasn't nervous. The whole damned plan from beginning to end sounded like a fucking set-up to her. The others must have thought so as well, because once she was upstairs getting...tarted up? Renji had called Rukia and demanded that she _talk_ to someone and get some goddamned answers because something wasn't right.

As it turned out- this was actually the way that Soul Society worked, especially with high ranking people. Because some of them often had to seduce people to gather intel, they thought it was for the best that Ichigo get used to doing the same things.

Apparently they were never told that virgin human's didn't do well when given a job where the often times violent and brutal rape was sanctioned. Go figure.

Rukia had been pissed by what she had learned, and had gone storming into the Captain-commander's office and_ screamed_ at him to call off the mission only to be kicked out and told that it was necessary.

Necessary.

Apparently no one had ever bothered to factor in just how debilitating such abuse could be for a young human. Both physically and mentally. Which was why Kisuke had decided that if anything happened to Ichigo while on this job- he would make damned sure that the people responsible for her suffering would damned well _bleed_ for their stupidity.

He wasn't the only one either.

Though that knowledge was of little comfort to anyone right now.

"Are you okay Ichigo?" Yoruichi asked curiously as she walked up to the girl. She jumped at the sound of her voice and looked at her with wide panicked eyes as she subconsciously ran her hands down her dress.

She didn't look so good. In fact she looked...overly pale and anxious.

"I-I don't think I can do this." Ichigo said looking very much as if she would like nothing more than to break down and cry.

Yoruichi gave her a sad, sympathetic look for a moment and then reached out and used her hands to move her newly trimmed and styled hair away from her face so that she could look at her a little better.

Ichigo was a total knockout with her new look. Truly she was. Even while looking so pale and sickly, she was absolutely beautiful. Yoruichi had done a good job of making the already pretty girl- breathtakingly stunning. Everything from her hair, to her makeup, to her dress had been carefully chosen to flatter her features. And they did.

Everything looked perfect.

_She_ looked perfect.

And under normal circumstances, maybe Ichigo would have actually liked how she looked. But right now, in this place- it was nothing more than a hinderance to her since she would unlikely get far more attention than she wanted.

"You look beautiful Ichigo. Just remember that you're playing a part. Be confident. If you keep acting skittish, those men will eat you alive." She said gently as she watched the girl try to calm herself by taking several deep breaths before seeming to pull herself together and saying,

"Okay. Lets go."

* * *

Ronin was stealthily making his way downstairs where the group was supposed to be meeting when they walked in. But that wasn't what had his total and utter undivided attention. No- he couldn't really care about the people that had just walked in- with of course the exception of_ her_.

"Ichigo..." He muttered softly as his icy blue eyes locked on her red clad figure and he felt his mouth go dry as he looked her over. She looked...scared. Understandably so considering who was hanging around this fucking building. But that didn't explain why she and her friends were present at this location.

In fact, if anything it just puzzled him more.

He watched as the blond guy from earlier today walked up to one of the guys that he was targeting and shook hands with him and then motioned with his hand towards Ichigo and the exotic beauty standing next to her.

Narrowing his eyes at his sweetheart's appearance, he felt his heart stutter in his chest as the blond guy that claimed to be her friend said something about taking one of the girls for a ride. Knowing that he didn't mean a ride in a car, Ronin gnashed his teeth and carefully tamped down on the overwhelming urge to jump the railing in front of him and grab her and kill anyone who dared to try and get close to her.

She was his dammit! And he didn't fucking share.

His ire only grew as several of the men walked towards Ichigo, leering, and undressing her with their eyes. The other woman stepped between the men and quickly charmed them into taking her for a ride instead. But the ruse didn't work on all of them.

At least two men hung back. Their interest in Ichigo becoming more and more apparent as the moments passed. And once her friend was gone, there was no one left to shield her from the lustful stares.

They exchanged a few words with the blond guy, and after a moment or two reached out and grabbed his girl and began to lead her off. Probably to one of the empty rooms to take their pleasure.

His breath left him in a soft hiss as he saw the panicked look that she shot her friends from over her shoulder. A clear indication that she didn't want to go with the men dragging her off.

"Hold on baby-" He muttered softly as he turned and began to track the men that had his girl. Luckily they had decided to come upstairs, not far from his current location before they disappeared into a bedroom. He saw one of the guys make the mistake of putting his filthy hands and mouth on Ichigo mere moments before the door to the room swung closed.

Earning a feral growl from him as he quietly moved to save his girl.

* * *

Ichigo staggered back and almost fell before she could catch herself. Her cheek stung, and she could taste the coppery tang of blood on her tongue as she turned her head to look- well, _glare_ is more like it, at the two men.

The guy that had kissed her was down on the floor whimpering from having her knee him.

And if there was any justice at all in the universe- he'd be pissing blood for the next month for trying to rip her panties off of her. _The sorry bastard_. She thought to herself as she then shifted her attention to his angry friend.

He was the one who had hit her.

And now that he believed her to be sufficiently cowed, he was demanding that she get on her knees. _Yeah, good luck with that_ _asshole_. She thought as he whipped out a gun and pointed it at her head when she didn't move fast enough to suit his taste.

Blinking at the weapon, she wondered briefly if he would actually be stupid enough to shoot her when Kisuke and the others were so close by. She needn't have bothered to wonder. He really was that stupid.

He pulled the trigger and her whole body jerked from the impact of a bullet tearing it's way through her shoulder. She didn't even have enough time to yelp as she fell to the floor clutching her shoulder and trying to catch her breath since the shock of the wound coupled with her fall seemed to have knocked the wind out of her.

She lay there for a moment just...breathing when the guy stepped over to her and grabbed a handful of her hair and used it to jerk her up. She cried out from the burning pain in her scalp and flared her energy. Once, twice and the next thing she knew- the son of a bitch hit her in the head with the butt of the gun and everything went black.

* * *

Ronin had just been reaching for the doorknob when he heard the gun discharging, followed by a thud and felt his blood run cold in his veins and his breathing hitch for a moment in fear.

_No, no, no, no_\- dammit he had just found Ichigo. And as such, he wasn't that inclined to lose her so soon.

Taking a deep, steadying breath he gripped the knob and twisted it. Terrified of what he might find within the room as the door slowly swung open for him.

He took a second to scan the room. It was how he usually located his prey when he was close to them and didn't know their exact location. And his heart damn near stopped beating when he took in Ichigo's state.

His girl was injured. Not badly, as far as he could see. But definitely enough to weaken her from blood loss and shock. She was lying sprawled on the bed, her dress was torn open at the top, and one of the men that had brought her to this godforsaken room was on top of her. _Touching her with his filthy hands._

His vision bled to red with rage as he stepped into the room and slammed the door behind him. Gaining the attention of the undivided attention of the men.

"Which one of you dumb fucks wants to be first."


	7. Chapter 7

As much as he would have liked to kill them slowly- he simply didn't have the time to make them hurt, and scream and beg for their miserable lives for what they had done to his girl. He couldn't. He did, however make quick- and messy- work of the two men. Both of whom now lay in a large puddle of their own blood.

He looked over his work on the two with a strange- and somewhat grim, sense of satisfaction for how they had died.

Neither man had been able to scream in alarm, much less put up a fight since the first thing that he'd done to them both was crush their throats. After that, it was only a matter of who died bloodier.

And he wasn't going to bother prettying up the truth.

They'd both died bloody, and frightened.

Hell, the second one to die had fucking pissed himself and saw his end coming when Ronin had smiled at him.

The first one that had died was the one who had put his hands and mouth on his girl. The poor bastard had gone into shock after his throat had been crushed- so he had probably not noticed much of anything done to him. And while that might have been a small mercy- it hadn't stopped his friend from being _pants-pissingly-terrified_.

After all, what kind of man wouldn't be fucking scared of someone who had just cut off their friend's dick and stuffed it in his mouth before crushing his skull in with his foot?

Once Ronin had finished with Mr. Kisser- he'd shifted his attention to the other guy and in a insane fit of rage and wrath, had gouged out his eyeballs, cut open his stomach and then pulled out some of his intestines with the intention of hanging him from the light fixture with them.

But had changed his plans to something maybe a little bit more..._gruesome_. He'd made his punishment for harming Ichigo, fit the crime.

Taking a page out of one of his favorite horror movies- thank you Predator- he'd ripped the man's head off, taking some of his spinal column with him. He hadn't even felt the burning of his muscles straining as he had pulled the guy's head off. After when he had and then dropped it after he had taken a moment to leer at the man's bloody face- his jaw still working a little bit. Still trying desperately to get that scream out- he supposed, before then dropping it and then walking over to the bed to check on Ichigo.

She was unconscious. The bleeding in her shoulder had stopped, thank god. But his poor baby was littered in dark bruises. Her face, her breasts, and shoulders. Even her bottom lip had been split open!

Hearing the vague sounds of heavy foot falls heading towards the room, he quickly wrapped Ichigo in the comforter that she was lying on, and lifted her up off of the bed and then moved over to the window, absently stepping over the dead men as he did so and then slipped outside with his girl, safely held in his arms.

The job was a bust for now. But that was okay since he'd be back again soon to finish it.

Right now he needed to get Ichigo to safety and take care of her injuries.

* * *

Because Ichigo didn't know who he was at the moment, and he needed his vigilante identity and the identity he'd already used with her, separate. He took her to a safe house a few miles from the one that he'd been staying in recently.

Which was good since it was already stocked with medical supplies clean clothing and some other essentials that he would need to care for her while hiding who he was from her.

Upon entering the safe house, he was quick to move to the bedroom and gently lay her down on the neatly made bed and then go about grabbing the First Aid kit from the bathroom along with some pain meds and a few other things. Some of which included a needle and medical grade thread, just in case he would need to stitch up her shoulder once it was clean.

Returning to the bedroom, he dumped everything in his hands onto the bed next to his girl and then took a moment to slip his long leather coat off so that he could move just a tad bit more freely and then unwrapped Ichigo. And took a moment to _carefully_ slip her injured arm free of her shredded dress's sleeve and then took a deep shuddering breath as he absently grabbed the alcohol and cotton swabs and such and went to work on cleaning and disinfecting the wound after which he'd found that the bullet was still lodged in her shoulder and bit back a foul oath.

Damning the guy that had shot his sweetheart to hell and back several times over as he mentally prepared himself to dig the bullet out. Grabbing some pain meds out of the kit, he fixed the allotted dosage and then looked down at Ichigo and damned near cringed while fervently hoping that she wasn't allergic to the medication.

There weren't any hospitals in the immediate vicinity of their current location and if she was allergic then things could go very badly, very, very quickly. He had a few EpiPen's lying around just in case he was allergic to something. So if she was allergic then he could use one of them, he supposed.

But he wasn't sure if it would help her in a long term capacity or not. And he was understandably wary of causing more harm than absolutely necessary to her.

But despite his wariness, he still wound up giving her the pain med and then sitting down next to her on the edge of the bed and mentally went over the tools that he'd have to use to dig the bullet out of her as he waited for the medicine to kick in.

* * *

The moment that Kisuke and the others managed to deal with the guys downstairs and kicked down the door to the room that Yoruichi beating on, they all stared at the gory scene before them in utter shock and dread.

Uryu left the room almost as soon as he saw the bodies to throw up in the hallway while Renji, and Chad scanned the room for any traces of Ichigo with grim expressions on their faces.

"Oh god." Kisuke groaned out as he scrubbed his face with his hands before dropping them back to his sides again. This was bad. This was very, very, _very_ bad. These people were underground criminals, for fuck's sake. And everything from tonight had likely been recorded by hidden camera'.

Ichigo was going to have her fucking face plastered all over the underground. And would likely need to go into hiding because she had just had a target painted on her damned back!

"I found something." Yoruichi said from next to the bed, drawing the men's attention to her as she held up a small piece of red cloth with her fingertips.

"Is that what I think it is?" Renji asked in a strained tone. His mind already going over anything and everything worst- case-scenario like.

"Fraid so," The woman said grimly as she scanned the bed where she'd found the piece of fabric. "I've also got some blood here."

"Could it belong to the guys?" Kisuke asked cautiously, hoping against hope that maybe it was just some blood splatter. _Dear god, please let it be blood spatter_...

"I don't think so. There's a puddle of it. Not a lot, but enough to indicate that someone was lying here."

"Oh my god- Kisuke groaned out again as he tried to _tamp_ down the feeling of utter panic trying to overwhelm him. _Ichigo should have never have been on this job_. Kisuke thought darkly as he took a slow calming breath and then started to bark out orders to everyone.

Chad and Uryu would hit the streets and look for any signs of their friend while Kisuke, Renji and Yoruichi stayed behind to see if they could do some damage control while gathering evidence form the room before they were forced to dispose of the bodies to keep the local police out of things.


	8. Chapter 8

The moment that he finished patching up her shoulder, he took a moment to lean over Ichigo's sleeping form to press a soft kiss to the flesh just above the bandage. He might have actually tried kissing the injury itself but...well, he was fairly certain that after he'd dug around in it- it must_ hurt_ like a son of a bitch.

Medicine or not. He knew that he'd hurt his baby girl while removing the bullet.

He'd been able to _see_ as well as _hear_ it. And while it wasn't quite enough to make him physically ill just yet... There were other, slightly more pressing concerns on his mind.

One of which were questions, really.

Like what had Ichigo been doing at that place? Why had her friends been there? He already figured that they had been there on some sort of job. But what kind, he couldn't really say.

And then there were the scars- the horrible, terrible, stomach turning, nausea inducing- Like _really_ nausea inducing, scars. No shitting, the second that he'd seen some of her other scars while trying to patch up her shoulder- he'd very nearly threw up.

Now, he wasn't a squeamish man. Not by any means.

He'd lived a very _violent_ and _bloody_ life. More then some others that he knew. Both as an Agent of Shield and even more so as an Avenger. His life had only become even bloodier since his family had died. So he couldn't really afford to _be_ squeamish. After all, it was a weakness that got people killed in his line of work.

But then that was to be expected.

He'd always told his friends that they wouldn't be able to conceive of the monster he'd become if anything happened to his wife and kids. Just because they had thought he was joking, didn't mean that he had been. But that was neither really here nor there.

The moment that he'd seen some of her scars, he'd felt bile burn the back of his throat and he'd damn near had to leave the room. While the shoulder wound and the scar on her leg had pretty much told him that she wasn't a stranger to violence and pain, and suffering of the physical kind- he'd not expected her body to be so riddled with old wounds.

Dear god, she had more wounds than he, Tony, Barnes and Natasha _combined_.

They were everywhere.

Her shoulders, her arms, her neck, her face- most of the smaller ones were fairly unnoticeable and did little to detract from her beauty. But the rest...he'd found makeup smudged on his fingertips a little while ago and could tell that someone- maybe Ichigo herself, had tried to _hide_ the worst of them under it.

It would have been easier if some of them weren't so damned noticeable even with the makeup. The puckered and angry looking flesh over some, was sort of a dead giveaway.

Taking a deep breath to settle his rattled nerves a little bit, he then decided to try and see just how bad some of the scars were. Getting up from his seat, he walked into the bathroom and grabbed a rag and wet it in the sink and then rung it out and returned to the bedroom.

He started with her face first. Wiping away any and all traces of makeup that she may have been wearing. Once her face was clear, he took her chin in his fingers and tilted her head back a little bit and took note of the small white lines at the corners of her eyes, and going across the bridge of her nose.

Chances were that they were from the injury that had led to her eye transplant surgery. And she'd probably had a little bit of cosmetic surgery too to keep the scarring to a minimum.

Moving on, he wiped down her throat- and was somewhat startled to find some scars there as well. Though they were very thin, fine lines. All running and overlapping along her jugular and the side of her neck.

Narrowing his icy blue eyes slightly at the sight of them he gritted his teeth and moved on.

The wounds on her torso made his vision bleed to red. Especially the overlapping scars on her chest, directly over her heart. _Jesus- Fuck._ He'd never seen so many injuries like these.

Some looked like blade wounds and others looked as if she'd been shot in the chest by something that had literally blown a hole through her body. The wounds were deep too. Deep enough to make matching scars on her back, right between her shoulders.

And at least _two_ of the scars looked as if they were from heart surgeries. Though he couldn't tell if they had been major or minor. But from the looks of things he was leaning far more towards major. And given the fact that they both seemed under a year old- that meant that she was probably on meds at the moment.

_I'll have to see about going and getting her meds for her._ He thought to himself as he moved a bit lower.

He wished that he could say that he was surprised by the scars that he found littering her ribs and stomach and abdomen; but why lie? He was horrified by them- especially the one that spread from just under her left side to almost the middle of her stomach.

_Dear god in heaven._ A wound like that would have spilled her organs all over the ground. Maybe even sent her into shock and killed her.

It was at this point that he found himself jumping up and running for the bathroom with a hand tightly pressed over his mouth. He barely made it through the door before he was overwhelmed by the urge to vomit and started to dry heave right there in the sink.

He coughed a few times, his vision blurred from unshed tears as he emptied his stomach and worked any further urge's out of his system. When he finished he turned on the tap and got some water to rinse out his mouth while simultaneously rinsing away any evidence of his upset.

After which, he sighed and turned off the tap and ran his fingers through his short cropped blond hair and then dropped his hand back to his side for a moment and tried to think. His mind going over various things that he already knew about Ichigo as well as the things that he didn't.

He knew that he knew very little about her. And yes, that fact did bug him immensely.

It was the things that he didn't know that could prove to be dangerous to her now as well as later on. So naturally he would need help to collect the right type of intel. And at the moment he neither had the means, nor the stomach to collect the pertinent intel on his girl.

Which meant...

Huffing because he didn't like the idea of one of his friends digging around in Ichigo's past- he weighed the pros and cons and then sighed again as he reluctantly- very reluctantly, dug his cell out of his pant's pocket and quickly typed out a text to Nat.

**Need help. Ichigo Kurosaki. Learn what you can and send the information to me ASAP.**

Nat texted him back within seconds.

**Are you well?**

She always was the worrier. He thought to himself as he chewed on his lower lip for a moment and read and reread the text from her while wondering how he should answer her. He knew that if he didn't respond, then she'd rally the others and hop on a Quin Jet and track his sorry ass down.

She was just good like that.

But as good as she was, he didn't need her hunting for him. Or bringing any of the others along with her. It would ruin all of his carefully laid plans. Plus...he kind of didn't want any of his friends to see him in his current state. He wasn't the person that they knew anymore.

He wasn't all that sure if he would ever _be_ that person again. Another text form Nat a few moments later had him muttering under his breath about mother hens and annoying bosom buddies.

**Clint?**

Carefully typing out his reply, he hesitated for a moment and then sent it along with an emoji of a heart.

**I'm...well enough. Information, please. And kindly tell Tony to keep his damned nose away from my business. **

He got another text from Nat and growled as he read,

**The boys make no promises. You've made them all curious. Also, Ichigo? You ran into someone named Strawberry?**

"I'll hunt them down and shoot them all, I swear to fucking god." He muttered before sending another emoji of fried shrimp?

That was the one that you were supposed to send when you had no real response, right? Or at least that was what the comedian Iliza Slesinger had said. He got an emoji back in response to his fried shrimp.

Apparently Nat didn't know either. Her response was to send him back two fried shrimps.


	9. Chapter 9

The moment that Nat had received the text from Clint, she'd jumped up from her seat in the middle of a meeting with the new director of Shield and had started yelling like a lunatic. In her defense though, she hadn't seen nor heard from her friend in little over a year. And she tended to worry.

Sure he sent her little emoji's from the blasted burner phone that she knew that he had. Each emoji were his weird code for, "I'm alive."

But she hadn't actually gotten _messages-messages_ from him since before his wife and kids had been killed. So she was more than a little bit excited to get a text that was- even if it was sort of an aloof message that told her next to nothing about his wellbeing.

And despite him asking her for info, he'd also given him a clue as to his current whereabouts!

Which was also something to be stupidly giddy about because it meant that he'd finally slipped up.

So naturally since the others were all in the room with her, the moment that she'd jumped up and started yelling, they were all up out of their seats and crowding around her while she practically bounced around in place and quickly showed everyone the text.

Tony, Bucky and Steve were all three quick to latch onto the name that her friend had sent for her to look into and were so utterly curious that it was frigging adorable. Tony and Bucky had made beelines straight for the door, intent to head home and look into the name, while Steve had had to wrangle them back- well sort of. He'd managed to get Bucky via blackmail.

But not Tony- he was an utter menace when something took root in his mind. And from the moment he'd seen Clint's text- he'd been a man on a mission. Which was why Thor had had to grab him and hold him still. Cursing and spitting all kinds of vile oaths at the overly cheerful blond.

Not that anyone could blame him any.

They'd all missed Clint terribly. Some more than others since he'd dropped off of the grid completely. But the fact remained that they had all missed him.

So naturally having even the smallest clue to his whereabouts was so utterly fantastic that it was practically orgasmic. It was just...that good.

Tony had taken the name given and the moment that they had returned to the compound- had run with it. _Literally_. He'd bolted before anyone had managed to so much as say 'stop' and had only paused for a moment to kick Thor in the shin before he was off again.

In under an hour he had everything from the girl- and she was a _girl_. Tony had double and triple checked, just to be absolutely certain.

And there was no other Ichigo Kurosaki's living, dead, or otherwise anywhere in the world.

So that had firmly cemented the fact that Clint was wanting info on a girl. Though none of them really understood the reasons _why_. Nat suspected that Ichigo's age (sixteen in a half) might have something to do with it.

But she also knew that from the fact that Clint had dropped off of the grid barely an hour after his family had died- that he had taken their passing more than a little bit hard...and might be wanting the info for something else entirely.

She just didn't want to speak of her suspicions aloud to the others, fearing that they might grow upset with Clint and decide that it was finally time to drag him home.

"Okay so we've established that Clint is looking into a girl," Tony said absently as he pulled up a holographic image of said girl. Bucky let out a low whistle, his eyes shining with interest as Tony looked up from his Stark pad for a moment to grin and say totally without shame, "I know, right! Is it weird that I totally get the whole Japanese school girl thing now?"

"Nope." Bruce said absently as he studied the image in front of them. He wasn't the only one either. Thor, Sam- hell even Bucky and Steve were all sitting up, or standing just a little bit straighter where they were.

The image of the girl was one of an exotic beauty for someone with mixed blood. She was Japanese-American in appearance, with long strawberry blond hair that had an orange-ish tint to it in direct sunlight, turquoise blue eyes, soft peach colored skin.

She was tall-ish for a girl. Her height nearly reaching six feet.

She was lithe and had an athletic build.

And had one of the most adorably confused looks as well as one of the most fetching pink blushes on her angelic little face in the picture that Tony had pulled up of her.

The pic was date about a year ago and in it Ichigo had an auburn haired beauty practically wrapped around her neck, pressing a kiss to one of her cheeks and a short- petite dark haired young lady with wide violet eyes was glaring daggers at the girl kissing her, with a scowl on her face.

In the background are three young men. Two of whom look oddly amused by Ichigo's predicament while the...uh...third guy- whom was a giant and startlingly close to seven foot something- had this oddly comical look on his face that was a mixture of exasperation, bemusement, and fondness.

Tony paused for a moment to change the picture out with another.

In it the giant was holding Ichigo up over his head and _glaring_ darkly at the two girls who looked as if they were chewing him out for putting the girl out of their reach. While their young friend just looked so utterly mortified by the whole situation that her face practically _burned_ from it.

Eliciting a couple of dopy smiles from Steve and Bucky and- _wow_, even a small one from Bruce- _What the shit?_

Nat rolled her eyes at the lot of them and their common male hormonal stupidity and simply said, "Don't make me sic Clint on the lot of you. He'll shoot you're dicks off." Everyone visibly cringed a she smiled knowing that they would stop drooling over the girl in the picture now and they could finally get down to business.


	10. Chapter 10

Once Ronin was finished cleaning up Ichigo, picking up after himself and digging out an old button down shirt for his sweetheart to wear while she slept, and quickly dressed her in it. After which he took a moment or two to check his cell for any more messages- just in case. Saw that he had one message from Tony and checked it.

Needless to say, he wasn't amused by the message which clearly stated.

_**Hello nurse**._ **I'm liking the little hottie**. **Can** **you get me her phone number? **Underneath a picture of his girl in her school uniform, being fought over by her two little girlfriends.

He fired a quick message back, about how he would kill the man and shit on his grave if he so much as _thought_ about keeping that picture of Ichigo to masturbate to later. And then put away his phone and grabbed a large empty duffle bag from his closet.

Since his girl was likely still on meds for her chest wounds and such- then it made total sense to him to go to her home while it was still unoccupied by her bothersome friends to collect her medicines and some of her clothing and such since he wouldn't be letting her out of his sight for a little while.

If his girl was good and didn't strain herself, he'd allow her to call one of her friends and let them know that she was okay. But he wouldn't be letting her leave the safehouse until he was absolutely certain that she was one hundred percent healed.

So...since bullet wounds often took two weeks or more to heal, depending of course on the size, depth, and the possibility of infection- he'd say that Ichigo would likely be staying with him for two weeks or longer.

That would give him two weeks to get to know her and her habits better, while taking care of her.

Was it weird that he was so excited that all of the blood to his brain had suddenly rushed south, and made him hard enough to cut fucking diamonds at the mere prospect of being in close quarters with her for an extended length of time?

Walking back over to the bed, he fussed with the covers a little bit.

Wanting to make sure that she was as totally comfortable as possible before he took off- and couldn't resist the overwhelming urge to brush his knuckles along the curve of her cheek before leaning over her and pressing a kiss to her forehead before then straightening his spine and slipping his duffle bag up onto his shoulder and walking out of the room.

Walking out of the house, he took a moment to activate the security system and texted Nat to send him a message in an hour. She tried to ask him why, but he shut that shit down quick, fast and in a hurry.

Merely telling her that if he didn't answer her in an hour's time, that he had something that he needed her to do and then quickly gave her some- somewhat vague-ish details on the safehouse and it's location. So that she could come and get Ichigo since if he didn't return from his trip in an hour; then something was horribly, _horribly_ wrong. And he didn't like the idea of his sweetheart being left to fend for herself when she was injured and would likely be disoriented, frightened and confused.

Nat texted him back that she would contact him in an hour and do as he asked.

He merely texted back that she was his favorite and then put his cell away again and started walking.

* * *

Chad sat in the darkness of Ichigo's room, on the bed with a towel draped around his neck. He'd just gotten out of the shower a short time ago after spending several hours looking for traces of her. He would have been able to find her a tad bit easier if her Soul Reaper abilities weren't_ fading_.

It was the price that she'd had to pay to unlock her new abilities and defeat Aizen almost a year ago. It was also part of the reason that she'd wound up in her latest coma so that her body could heal.

But...he wasn't complaining. Not really.

After all, the outcome of that particular battle could have been immensely worse. He was just frustrated that she was missing and he didn't know where to fucking _find_ her or if she was even okay.

Though he knew enough to know that she were at least still alive.

He could still feel that much.

Her spirit energy was a lot like a pulse that synchronized with his heartbeat. Even as weak as it was now, he could still feel it even over a distance. He just couldn't pin point it's exact location.

Sighing, he hung his head a little bit and scrubbed his face with his hands tiredly.

Kisuke and the others were going absolute ape-shit. Not that Chad could blame them any. The blond scientist had been beyond upset with the way that things had gone down during their assignment. So much so that after taking what was needed from the room where Ichigo had vanished from, and disposing of the bodies, he and Yoruichi had both disappeared to the Soul Society to chew a few choice higher up's out.

Renji had called Rukia to tell her what had happened and she had damned near destroyed her brother's home. Pissing him off until he'd learned what had her so upset.

Now he and Rukia and a few other captains and lieutenant's were heading to the living world to help out with the search for Ichigo in the hopes of bringing her home alive and well.

Even Chad knew enough about killers to know not to expect mercy from them. And the fact that his friend was taken by a very violent and proficient killer- was more than enough to make him sick with guilt.

If they ever found Ichigo again, alive...the odds of her ever being able to live normally like she did now were very slim. The odds of her coming out of this completely intact, even more so.

He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he almost didn't hear the latch on the bedroom window clicking as it was unlocked. He certainly almost didn't hear the window sliding up and the blinds making a soft and barely audible sound as they were moved.

Almost.

But...he did.

Turning his head slowly to glance at the once closed window, he saw a black clad leg appear and narrowed his dark eyes for a moment in absolute rage._ How dare_\- Whoever was breaking into his friend's home was in for a very rude and very violent awakening if they thought that they could slip in and case the place.

And wouldn't you know it- he had some shit to work out.

He gave a wide, feral smirk in the darkness and sat perfectly still like a predator lying in wait for it's prey. The person coming in would be lucky if he/they escaped from him in one piece, much less alive.

Chad didn't care though. All he wanted right now was blood and a chance to vent his frustrations. So having someone be stupid enough to enter into his and Ichigo's territory was just _perfect_.

Licking his lips, his spirit energy spiked a little bit in anticipation. His dark eyes glittering a golden amber akin to Ichigo's hollow's eyes as he watched the guy finish climbing in and damn near jump out of his skin when he noticed him sitting there eying him with bloodlust.

Muttering a few choice oaths, the guy quickly turned and tried to throw himself back out the bedroom window. Back to supposed safety- however he never made it.

A person wouldn't think that someone so fucking huge could move so damned fast. But he did. He moved so damned fast that the guy in black couldn't track him, much less escape him.

One second he'd been scrambling to get back out of the house and the next, a large hand was wrapped around his leg and he was sailing through the air.


End file.
